


in the woods somewhere

by vellichorvirgo



Category: Original Work
Genre: Abstract, Creepy, Inspired by a Hozier Song, Nature, No Plot/Plotless, Original Fiction, Song: In The Woods Somewhere (Hozier), Songfic, Supernatural Elements, honestly have no idea what to tag this as, i mean there's a very vague plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:08:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22883038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vellichorvirgo/pseuds/vellichorvirgo
Summary: The night was dark, but it was alive.
Kudos: 2





	in the woods somewhere

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by hozier's music (mainly the song 'in the woods somewhere') & the beautiful art of jenna barton (dappermouth on tumblr - go check her out!!)
> 
> decided to go out on a limb and try sharing an original work i wrote a few months ago :) this was a very experimental piece - i've never really written anything like this before, so i'm not quite sure how it'll be received, but i hope someone out there enjoys this.

_ when i awoke, the moon still hung _

_ the night so black that the darkness hummed _

Though the heavens were black and empty, the meadow was awash with silver light. 

She was surrounded by a glowing, undulating sea of grasses. They stretched as far as her eye could see, down to the silhouettes of faraway pines, right down to the place she felt more than saw—the distant line where the land blurred into the sky. They brushed her hips, her legs, her fingertips; faint, featherlight touches like barely-there kisses. When the wind blew, they began to sway and whisper. 

It was when they were quiet, though, that she heard the voices. 

They came from beyond the meadow, from the darkness outside its glow. From where exactly, she couldn’t tell. 

Sometimes, when she looked hard enough, she thought she saw something. A pair of gleaming eyes here; a flash of bone-white teeth there; the outlines of figures her mind couldn’t quite grasp. 

Just for a second. Gone before she could blink.

The voices grew clearer the closer she edged toward the blackness. The meadow seemed to grow agitated. The grasses reached for her more fervently—tangling themselves in the ends of her hair, catching around her ankles so that she had to shake them away with every step. More than once, she felt a sharp sting of pain on her exposed skin, like she’d been pricked by a thorn. Whenever she looked, though, her skin remained unmarked and unbloodied, and the pain dissipated like curls of smoke on the breeze. Like it had never been there at all.

When she reached the edge of the meadow, a moaning gust of wind kicked up. This time, the whispers of the grasses seemed to sound more like weeping—or maybe that was from somewhere else, somewhere beyond. She could hear more than just the voices now. 

The night was dark, but it was alive. 

She stepped forward, and the meadow grasses sighed before they melted away into blackness. 

**͠**

Silver light cut a fine slice through the dark, flat and round and rippling. 

No, not true light—an echo, a shadow. A shivering reflection upon the surface of a lake. What the water was reflecting, though, she couldn’t see. 

She approached the lake, bare feet sinking into cold, loamy soil. Around her was a ring of pines, their sharp silhouettes pricking the sky. Overhead, she heard the overlapping sounds of many fluttering wings. A black feather fell from nothingness onto the lake’s surface—constantly rippling, as though something was disturbing it, keeping it from stilling—, floated there for half a second, and sank. 

For a moment, when she dropped to her knees at the water’s edge, she felt no earth beneath her body. 

She leaned out over the lake, gazing down at the tentative gleam caught on the lapping waves. An image formed on the restless surface, but her eyes couldn’t make sense of what it was. Pale, curving antlers shifted to a jagged fork of lightning to one three five pairs of unblinking yellow eyes. 

She didn’t know how long she stared back before her own image finally appeared in the water. Her—but not. What about it was different? Was it something about the curve of her mouth, the slant of her cheekbones, the line of her nose—some change that brought an ethereal, savage quality to her face? What was that in the depths of her eyes—something ancient and knowing, like a snake coiled in tall meadow grass? 

She sensed the touch on her shoulders before she felt the fingers pressing into her. Although a voice spoke into her ear, no breath fell on her skin. 

_ That is what you could be, if only you were bold enough.  _

When the presence withdrew from her once more, she felt something deep inside her claw its way free. 

Slowly, she reached out and placed a palm flat on the surface of the lake. The silver glow dimmed beneath her fingers, leaving behind an inky shadow. She placed down her other palm, and the rippling water went still. 

She waited. Breathed in through her nose, inhaling the far-flung scents of woodsmoke and petrichor. Eyed the strange shapes pacing in the dark just on the other side of the lake. Counted her heartbeats— _ one, two, three.  _

Then dove into the water with barely a splash. 

And with that, she awoke anew.

  
  


_ how many years, i know i’ll bear _

_ i found something in the woods somewhere _

**Author's Note:**

> comments are very very very highly appreciated, whether it be a criticism or even just what you thought of it. thank you for reading ♡


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